The President has insisted he would pull out of the alliance “absolutely, without question”
Donald Trump has said he is “strongly considering pulling out of NATO” after its members failed to back the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Asked if he was thinking about pulling out of the alliance on Wednesday, the President told Reuters: “Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?”
In a separate interview earlier today, Trump slammed his allies’ response to the war he launched on Iran without their support.
“I would say [withdrawing] beyond reconsideration. I was never swayed by NATO,” he told The Telegraph.
“I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
Read more: ‘False and baseless’: Iran rejects Trump’s claim it asked US for ceasefire
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A ball of fire rises from the site of an Israeli strike that targeted a building in Beirut yesterday, as the US President has said Iran’s new leaders have called on the White House to end the fighting in the Middle East.
Picture:
Getty
He added: “Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe and I didn’t do a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey’, you know, I didn’t insist too much. I just think it should be automatic.
“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine. Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them. They weren’t there for us.”
European allies have turned their backs on the US in recent days, with Sir Keir Starmer once again reiterating his stance that the Iran conflict is “not our war.”
French President Emmanuel Macron also called the US strikes “outside of international law,” while Spain closed its airspace to US military planes and labelled it a “profoundly illegal and unjust.”
The tension grew on Tuesday as Trump said the UK should secure the Strait of Hormuz itself, insisting “the USA won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us”.
Despite the growing conflict, the President has repeatedly claimed in recent days that peace discussions have started with Tehran.
He also took to social media on Wednesday to claim Iran’s “less radicalised and far more intelligent” new leaders had asked the US for a ceasefire.
But Tehran hit back hours later, with its foreign ministry dismissing claims it had asked for a ceasefire as “false and baseless.”
It is unclear who this “new regime president” referred to by Trump is, with the newly appointed Ayotollah believed to be a harder-line leader than his predecessor.
Trump wrote: “Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street.
Picture:
Alamy
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
Asked if he thought Starmer should invest more in defence, Trump added: “I’m not going to tell him what to do.
“He can do whatever he wants. It doesn’t matter. All Starmer wants is costly windmills that are driving your energy prices through the roof.”
Speaking from Downing Street this morning, the PM outlined a “five-point plan” for Britain to respond to the crisis in the Middle East.
Sir Keir has warned the Iran war will “affect the future of our country” but insisted the UK was “well-placed” to weather the storm as the conflict hits the economy and pushes up fuel and energy costs for consumers.
The Prime Minister sought to reassure Britons that there would be a “long-term plan” in place to emerge a “stronger and more secure nation” amid widespread concerns about the impact of the conflict on the cost of living.
At a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday, Sir Keir said: “It is now clear that the impact of this war will affect the future of our country.
“So, today, I want to reassure the British people that no matter how fierce this storm, we are well-placed to weather it and that we have a long-term plan to emerge from it a stronger and more secure nation.”